The building blocks created by our physical and emotional habits enable us to focus our mental energy on the task at hand. We all have mental habits that we use in our day, mostly unconsciously, and it’s these habits that either enable us to respond and be on the front foot or be in constant reactive mode and literally feeling like we are drinking from a firehose all day, every day!Most of us are inefficient in where we place our focus and get distracted by multiple things we need to get done. In any given moment, we might be moving between whatsapp messages, social media, emails, spreadsheets and conversations, sometimes all overlapping each other. It’s like trying to get home quickly but having to gear down, stop, then accelerate at every robot (traffic light) along the way vs cruising in 5th gear on a highway where we are able to maintain a smooth, efficient driving speed.This collective illusion that multi-tasking is the best way to get things done is simply flawed even though it is pervasive. The truth is that human beings are designed to do one thing at a time-yes, we can hear the women-even you are not good multitaskers.Multitasking reduces our efficiency and performance because our brain can only focus on one thing at a time. When we try to do two things at once, our brains lack the capacity to perform both tasks successfully. Research also shows that, in addition to slowing us down, multitasking actually lowers our IQ. While the brain represents just 2% of a person's total body weight, it accounts for around 20% of the body's energy use. It’s the engine that drives our performance-so it’s best to care for it rather than let it overheat and burn out right?Like physical and emotional capabilities, maximum mental capacity is derived from a balance between expending and recovering mental energy. Developing simple repeatable habits that enable us to do this becomes more critical in our busy, fast paced lives.Consider your typical or automatic behaviours in your day and notice where you might be leaking vital mental energy through unconscious, ineffective habits and where you could begin to make small changes that will enable you to sharpen your focus and results. Remember, changing channels mentally permits different parts of the brain to be activated and facilitates creativity and renewal.Focusing on these habits enables us to build muscles such as mental preparation, visualisation, positive self-talk, effective time management and creativity, all of which ensure that we renew our mental energy resources throughout the day rather than exhausting them and arriving home overstressed, unavailable emotionally and turning to Netflix, alcohol, or more work at night because we’ve had another tough day. The only way to turn this around is to build small deliberate repeatable habits into our day that build our mental recovery muscles. It’s up to each of us to dig deeper, focus on what is in our control and then make the commitment to change the way we play the game. We are either constantly on the back foot defending our days just to get through them or we are on the front foot, orchestrating our days, driving proactively forward, ensuring we are focused on our priorities and have the mental reserves to adapt to what is needed in any given moment.The more we focus on what is within our control rather than outside of it, the more resilient, responsive and agile we will be throughout our day.6 mental energy habits and hacks to build your mental muscles:· Starting and/or ending your day with journaling for 5-10 minutes· Building awareness of your inner dialogue-Ensuring your inner supporters are growing stronger while your inner critics aren’t running the show· Working on one task at a time and turning off alerts and pings that will distract you· Batching your email to a few times in the day rather than constantly responding throughout the day· Being more aware of your breath, between meetings and on breaks, rather than quickly checking a whatsapp or email which only raises your stress because you don’t have enough time to deal with it before your next meeting anyway! · Visualising how you want your day/meeting/actions to go and preparing for both best- and worst-case scenarios on how you will respond rather than react <strong>Written by Gavin Shaskolsky